Jennifer Woodlief
Jennifer Woodlief is an American author of investigative journalism, extreme sports, history, and memoir genres. Jennifer is a former reporter for Sports Illustrated and the author of two books, Ski to Die: The Bill Johnson Story and her newest work, A Wall of White: The True Story of Heroism and Survival in the Face of a Deadly Avalanche. She has also worked as an assistant district attorney prosecuting first-degree [...] cases and as a CIA case officer with a top-secret clearance.
Jennifer currently resides with her husband and three children in Tiburon, CA.
Books
Ski to Die: The Bill Johnson Story (ISBN 13: 9781578602483)
- “ Bill Johnson took the world by storm at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics, coming out of nowhere to win the first American gold medal in downhill skiing. He went on to dominate the World Cup races that same year. His success made him an overnight celebrity, but his fame was fleeting. He never won another race, and personal tragedy seemed to follow him at every turn. With his post-Olympic life spiraling out of control, Johnson decided to do the unthinkable — make a comeback at the age of forty. He had his motto, "Ski to Die," tattooed on his right bicep. In a race at Big Mountain, fearless and in the lead with one turn to go, Johnson crashed face-first into the icy mountain at fifty miles per hour. Ski to Die is a story about the cost of chasing dreams. It is about glory and the attempt to recapture it once it is lost. More than a cautionary tale, Ski to Die is a rise-fall-rise-again story — because against all odds, Bill Johnson’s story doesn’t end at Big Mountain.”
A Wall of White: The True Story of Heroism and Survival in the Face of a Deadly Avalanche (ISBN 13: 9781416546924)
- "One of the most amazing survival stories ever told -- journalist Jennifer Woodlief's gripping account of the deadliest ski-area avalanche in North American history and the woman who survived in the face of incalculable odds.
- On the morning of March 31, 1982, the snow had already been falling at a record rate for four days at Alpine Meadows ski resort near Lake Tahoe, California. For the vacationers and employees at the resort, this day would change their lives forever.
- The unprecedented avalanche that day at Alpine Meadows was a once-in-a-lifetime catastrophe. Much like the nor'easter that bedeviled the fishermen in Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm, an unforeseeable confluence of natural events created the conditions for an unimaginable disaster -- and, in one woman's case, an astonishing ordeal of survival.
- Jennifer Woodlief movingly tells the story of the massive slab avalanche that killed seven and left one victim buried alive under the snow. In this freak event, millions of tons of snow roared into the ski area and beyond, engulfing unsuspecting vacationers as well as resort employees working in spite of the danger.
- At the center of this wrenching tale of nature's fury are ski patrolman Larry Heywood and his team, who heroically fought with the help of a search-and-rescue dog to save a twenty-two-year-old woman trapped for five days underneath the suffocating snow -- a tale of survival that is itself an exploration of the capacity of courage.
- Written with all the suspense of a thriller, A Wall of White is an inspiring story of a group of strangers brought together by an inconceivable calamity -- a testament to the unwavering dedication of a band of rebel rescuers, driven only by a commitment to saving lives, battling not just extreme conditions but seemingly impossible odds."